Witness life in the Trenches

COMMUNITY volunteers are today applying the finishing touches to an ambitious week-long World War One centenary celebration.

Friends of Haigh Country Park (FoHCP)are staging an exhibition (April 20 / 25) of Great War-related memorabilia which will run alongside a range of interactive events for schoolchildren across the borough.

Events will include a recreation of a World War One trench and a field hospital, while original artefacts including Lord Crawford’s war diaries from the front line will be available for people to see.

The friends’ group decided to put on a longer public event following the huge success of a display put on at Haigh Hall last year, with this month’s exhibition showcasing the key role Lady Crawford and Haigh Hall itself played in establishing the Wigan branch of the Red Cross.

Fittingly, the job of unveiling the memorial plaque will be given to Daphne Litt, who volunteered with the Red Cross for six decades.

FoHCP chairman John Hulme said that it had helped to amass a mine of information and artefacts and were keen to draw attention to the importance of all the field hospitals played, as well as remembering the almost unbelievable loss of life and tragedy of trench life,

He said: “We want to involve children and young people and hopefully we can keep their interest and give them some information.

“We have created a WW1 hospital ward diorama and there will be a manned casualty clearing station.”